


Hamster wheel with no brakes

by iarrannme



Series: Planting and other stories [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, Protective Michelle Jones, Protective Principal Morita, Protective Roger Harrington, Protective Tony Stark, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 12:37:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21179543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iarrannme/pseuds/iarrannme
Summary: Heroism takes many forms.  Sometimes it’s flashy and dramatic.  Sometimes it's all inside your head.  Or: Mr. Harrington makes sure everyone survives the flight back home from Europe at the end of FFH, through the sheer force of his indomitable will.This story is a counterpoint to Ch. 1 ofPlanting, but you can read it alone.





	Hamster wheel with no brakes

He hid Julius’s Ambiens.

Stole. He stole them.

Temporarily. He’ll give them back after the flight.

Not “give” so much as stuff them back into Julius’s bag without, he hopes, getting caught.

So, hid.

He will _not_ be the only adult awake on the flight home, because so help him _nothing further will happen on this trip_ if he has to clench his fists on the armrests and not blink the entire time to will it so. Julius can damn well shoulder his half of the clenching for once.

The kids all think he’s a bit of an idiot, and he _is_, he _is_, he _knows_ he is, he has a numbered list of all the ways his ex-wife described his idiocy (he made it himself, after alphabetizing was no longer satisfactory), but just because he’s a very specific type of idiot doesn’t mean he’s an idiot in every other way.

Which is to say: he knew to vaguely accept the hand-waving Peter offered to explain why “staying with family in Berlin” turned into “flying home with everyone else, with a limp, a not quite healed cut, and no luggage, right after Spider-Man barely survived whatever the hell just happened.”

Which is to say: once he spotted Spider-Man in the boat with whoever-it-was that night in Venice, he reviewed the hotel’s map and emergency evacuation plans and plotted the swiftest course to all the students’ rooms in case he had to bang on doors and shout to run, then sat in his room with the light off watching the canal and fidgeting until he saw Spider-Man climb safely back into Peter’s window.

He’s haunted by the fear that someday Peter won’t come back. _He_ needs some emotional counseling, but Julius is even less equipped to do it than he is.

He’s haunted by a lot of things.

* * *

It’s a long flight. It’s only half over. He’s already watched his ex-wife’s fake funeral three times.

He could make a list of all the times he’s covered for Peter, all the babbling he’s pretended to fall for, all the things he’s been carefully oblivious to.

He’d suspected for a long time, but hadn’t really believed yet, when Peter missed Nationals. He’d thought he was being an idiot again, he’d dreaded the look he’d have gotten if he told anyone. (“Roger, my god, you always read too much into things, it was one kiss, can you just _not_?”)

Then, that utterly familiar voice from their upside-down masked savior. He hadn’t freaked out at the confirmation, only because he’d already been panicking about imminent death and whether the tour guide thought he was cute or a fool and whether even wondering that counted as cheating (she wasn’t his _ex_-wife yet) and whether “won nationals” would balance out “multiple students dead or traumatized” on his end-of-year evaluation and whether the nausea was due to the fear, the elevator shaking or the tofurkey burrito. “Spider-Man actually _is_ Peter” had had to take a number. He’d gotten to it on the ride home, right after surreptitiously stuffing protruding bits of red and blue cloth back into Peter’s bag and closing the zipper all the way.

He’d called Morita – again – after all the students were finally gone. On his personal cell. Which, fine, for once he’d known it was a boundary violation even without being told, let alone whatever FERPA had to say about revealing a student’s secret superhero identity without their permission, but sue him, he was _not handling this well_.

He hadn’t expected his frantic babbling of evidence to be met with a laconic, “Pfft, join the club.” The chemistry teacher, the school nurse, everyone who had access to the front-gate security camera feed between 2:45 and 2:50 … His story was the last straw, though: Morita hand-delivered a letter to Tony Stark “re: Peter Parker’s SI ‘internship’ and unacceptable risk to our student.” They’d all signed it. Morita had refused to discuss his conversation with Stark, beyond saying it got interrupted by Stark suiting up and leaping out the window yelling about a ferry –

His trip down memory lane is going to bring on a panic attack if he isn’t careful. He clutches the plastic cup of water – he doesn’t even remember the drink cart coming by. He should drink it; dehydration is a risk on long plane flights. He should not drink it; what if he’s in the bathroom and something awful happens? He looks across the aisle. “Dammit, Julius, you’re not clenching!” he hisses. Julius ignores him, engrossed in a scene involving Professor McGonagall.

At least Peter’s right there in the seat in front of him. He’d tried to put Peter next to him again, but MJ gave him a single look and said flatly, “Boh,” pulling Peter into the seat next to her. They’re both asleep – his head on her shoulder, her head on his head, hands entwined but slack. He’s afraid to ask MJ whether she knows – he’s afraid of MJ in general – but he doesn’t need to ask. She’s hardly let him out of her sight either, and glares at anyone but Ned who gets too close. (Brad tried to sit on her other side. Brad is now sitting as far from her as he can get.)

He signals the steward and requests coffee for himself and for Julius. Caffeine’s a diuretic, they’ll have to stagger their bathroom trips, he’ll make a schedule and Julius _will_ follow it, or he’ll – he’ll – he’ll give Julius a numbered list of the consequences, that’s what.

He nods to himself, then pulls out the airplane schematic to review emergency exit locations, glaring at them until his eyes burn. He may have let an expensive camera slip through his hands, but he will not do the same with a student.

Nothing further will happen on this trip.

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, Mr. Harrington! Anxiety, trauma, general dorkiness. But he cares so much and keeps trying so hard.
> 
> The title is a reference to Sia’s “Unstoppable,” which contains the line “I’m a Porsche with no brakes.”
> 
> Seriously, why did Talos-as-Fury tell Peter to suit up for the trip through Venice, if he was going to say “lose the mask … you’d only be feigning anonymity” as soon as they reached their destination? Why did Peter agree, if he was so freaked about Spider-Man being seen in Europe? It can’t have been that late at night if most students and teachers were still awake, so at least one person must have seen him …
> 
> EDIT 2020-05-15: I'm always super stoked when someone subscribes to a story but since this one is clearly done I think today's new subscription was another "subscribe to story vs. to series vs. to author" confusion. I don't have any plans to add to this story, and no current further inspiration for this series, so if you want any notifications of my further work, click on my name and THEN click subscribe. You'll make my day! :)
> 
> EDIT 2020-05-18: Check out stoneage_woman's series [Everyday Superhero Verse](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728850) for an amazing take on Mr. Harrington. Warning: it's heavily focused on gun violence (school shootings); there are funny bits and the ending is hopeful, but it is wrenching in parts. Really, really, really well done.


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